Three parties are now negotiating with James City County to purchase about 37 acres of public land known as the Jamestown Yacht Basin, which is the current home of a marina and Eco Discovery Park.
The nonprofit Eco Discovery Park, which has struggled to take hold since opening in 2012, was the only entity to submit a bid to purchase the Jamestown Yacht Basin — a parcel next to Jamestown Settlement that includes the park, several buildings and a marina with 85 boat slips and a launch ramp — when the county put it on the market last year.
James City County rejected the park’s $250,000 offer for land tax assessors say is worth $3.54 million. The rejection of the offer colored the park’s final months of its three-year lease for the land, which included a series of benchmarks for the park, some of which have not been met.
After rejecting that offer last fall, County Administrator Bryan Hill turned to a real estate broker to find a new buyer.
Hill would not identify any of the parties involved, citing the ongoing negotiations. He said it is important for the land to remain a recreational site for county citizens while also a “viable economic engine” for the county.
“My deadline is to get the best deal,” Hill said of the negotiations. “My deadline is ensuring we have the best possible plan for that property.”
Eco Discovery Park President Steve Rose told WYDaily in January he still wants to buy the land and he was in ongoing negotiations with the county. Rose refused to comment for this story.
Rose has posted a letter to supporters on the park website that identifies ownership of the land as a key step for the park. In the letter, he called on his supporters to tell members of the board of supervisors why they “believe [Eco Discovery Park] is a great asset for our community.”
Rose said in January he is working on a plan with the Williamsburg Land Conservancy to purchase and place a conservation easement on the property — a tool used to preserve the character of land by prohibiting most development — which could then be used to potentially generate tax credits to help pay the purchase price of the land.
The park opened in 2012 when Rose began a three-year lease with the county for the yacht basin. The lease expired at the end of 2014, but the county extended it for three months so the park could operate while continuing negotiations.
In both the letter to supporters and comments made to WYDaily earlier this year, Rose has said he must acquire the land to continue to nurture his vision for the park, much of which has yet to be realized. When the lease was considered by the county’s board of supervisors in 2011, Rose submitted a vision for the park outlining a slew of amenities.
The park set out to be a one-stop shop for so-called eco tourism, where guests would find a constellation of trails punctuated by exhibits that detailed topics like alternative fuels and transportation, climate change, recycling and renewable energy.
“Ultimately by employing the natural setting, we envision an eco discovery park offering locals and tourists alike environmental exhibits, educational programs and outdoor activities highlighting the historic context of our waterways, the value of our local environment, challenges our planet faces in these current times and how we as individuals can meet these challenges for future generations,” said Tinsley Goad during a September 2011 James City County Board of Supervisors meeting. Goad was then a member of Eco Discovery Park’s board of directors.
There were supposed to be numerous amenities, including an organic cafe, a ropes course, solar panels and wind turbines, a yurt village for student interns and a playground built from recycled materials, according to a vision statement submitted to the county when the lease was originally under consideration.
None of those amenities have come to fruition.
The lease included numerous benchmarks for the fledgling park, but “it appears few of them have been met,” Assistant County Administrator Adam Kinsman said. The lease agreement says the benchmarks would be used to measure the park’s progress for any potential lease extension, but does not specify whether the benchmarks would be considered during land sale negotiations.
Attendance figures provided to WYDaily by James City County show the park falling short of the benchmarks set out in the lease. Those numbers have remained relatively stable since 2012, with 1,535 people renting bicycles, kayaks or canoes from the park in 2014. The lease sought a paid attendance of at least 2,000 in 2013, and 3,000 in 2014.
Those attendance figures come despite the park’s location across the street from Jamestown Settlement, which attracted 393,697 paid visitors in 2014. It is also in the vicinity of major draws like Jamestown Island and Jamestown Beach Park.
After three years, the park features a garden and rentals for bicycles and kayaks, which allow guests to explore nearby Jamestown Island and the waters surrounding it.
The park has a partnership with Chesapeake Experience, which is headquartered at the yacht basin and offers summer camps and kayak tours. A partnership also exists with James River Tours, which gives boat tours of nearby waterways.
The benchmarks included establishing trails and associated exhibits, as well as a requirement the park have active partnerships with at least five organizations on a list of local groups: Williamsburg-James City County Schools; the College of William & Mary; Colonial Williamsburg; Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; Virginia Living Museum; Virginia Capital Trail; James River Association; Chesapeake Conservancy; and Jamestown 4-H Camp.
WYDaily contacted all of those agencies, and while the James River Association called the park a “key partner,” the other groups that responded did not identify much beyond occasional shared parking, food sales or the receipt of gift certificates.
JRA has partnered with Eco Discovery Park for the James RiverFest, a spring event at the park featuring live music, food, environmental cleanup and activities on the nearby waters.
The park also hosted the Jamestown Chowder Fest in November to raise money for itself.
Another benchmark concerning the park was contingent upon the James City County Economic Development Authority issuing a report highlighting how the park is affecting the local economy and the county’s eco-tourism objectives. The county’s Office of Economic Development has not responded to multiple requests for comment regarding the report.
In an October interview with WYDaily, Rose said the park would close unless it was able to purchase the Jamestown Yacht Basin. Without owning the land, the park was unable to apply for needed grant funding or pursue partnerships with outside organizations, Rose said.
“That’s not a threat; it’s just a reality statement,” he said at the time.
He said he believed the eco-themed exhibits that are supposed to dot the proposed trails could be realized through corporate partnerships, such as a recycling company for an exhibit detailing the positive effects of recycling.
The lease agreement for the park was approved at the September 2011 board of supervisors meeting. The supervisors voted 4-1 then to approve the lease with the park, with Supervisor Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) casting the lone no vote.
In a recent interview with WYDaily, Kennedy said he opposed the lease in 2011 because he preferred then that the county sell the land.
“All the money we got in the lease we were giving back in making repairs, and that’s not a good way to do business,” he said. “We’re making nothing on it.”
Figures provided by the county show $110,000 was spent on the property during the life of the lease to both maintain and improve the site. The county has collected $150,000 in rent during the three-year lease for the site.
Kennedy said the property needs expensive work done, including a dredging of the marina, replacing of bulkheads, upgrades to the restrooms and changes to the electrical system.
“About anything you can think of needs to be done,” he said of the property.
He said Rose’s desire to acquire the land to offer the park a firmer foundation than a temporary lease is not unreasonable.
“He’s done a lot of work out there but he needs to make more investments and he wants some assurances he’ll be out there long term,” the supervisor said.
The county purchased the yacht basin along with nearby land along the James River in 2006 for $12.5 million, though grant funding accounted for $2.9 million of that sum. Some of the land was later sold to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the Virginia Department of Transportation for $4.5 million, according to Sue Mellen, the county’s director of financial and management services.
The land abutting the river became Jamestown Beach Park, while the county turned to private companies to operate the marina. The county entered into a contract with Master Marine, which operated the marina until Eco Discovery Park took over at the beginning of 2012.
Shortly after acquiring the land, the county began a project called Shaping Our Shores to spell out visions for the land along with land acquired in 2001 along the Chickahominy River. That land is now Chickahominy Riverfront Park.
The county turned to planning and engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin and a team of co-consultants to analyze the then-current conditions of the lands and develop master plans for what could be done with them.
The firm’s analysis produced a plan calling for a complete overhaul of the yacht basin. The marina would be rebuilt, while condos, retail and a park would be added to the site.
Hill said the Shaping Our Shores plan remains “a vision” for the property, but it would require a significant amount of money to bring it to fruition.
By last summer, the county decided it was time to move on from the marina business.
“A marina is not really a function of local government, so we have tried to keep it going as best as we can,” then-Acting County Administrator Doug Powell told WYDaily in July. “I think it does take resources for us to keep operating it, and I think a lot of people just don’t see it as a governmental function.”
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